People HATE The Long ‘Frozen’ Short That Plays Before Coco

The ‘Frozen’ short is 21 minutes you aren’t getting back

The new Pixar film, Coco, is everything it’s been hyped to be – and more. It’s a feel good story, with exceptional animation, music, and characters that make you feel invested in from the very beginning. But if you didn’t pay attention to the “and more” and “beginning” parts of that sentence, you should. If you want to take your kids to see Coco and not have them (or you) lose your marbles, please note there is a 21 minute Frozen short before Coco even begins.

Coco debuted this weekend and has already grossed over $160 million worldwide because it’s awesome. The animated film features aspiring musician Miguel, who must overcome his family’s ban on music to follow his dreams of being a performer. When he enters the Land of the Dead to understand this ancestral mystery, he finds more than he bargains for and a new appreciation of what family really means.

This is all good stuff, but what moviegoers don’t expect is that in order to get to Coco itself, one must sit through not only the previews, but then a 21-minute short titled Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep little kids entertained for 40 minutes before their movie even starts? After they’ve blown through all of their candy? It’s a goddamn nightmare.

I took my six-year-old to see Coco this weekend and was one of what I now know are thousands of people who walked out of the theater certain we’d walked into the wrong one. Following close behind was my angry child vocalizing his displeasure that I could’ve made a mistake this epic. When the theater manager assured us this was, in fact, the right theatre and that our feature presentation would be starting shortly, we made our way sheepishly back to our seats.

Now I love Olaf as much as the next girl, but 21 minutes is a long damn time to get the stink-eye from your kid who feels like you tricked him into seeing a different movie. And you know what happens when your kid loses interest and can’t sit still long enough to make it through the whole shebang? You end up missing the end of Coco. I have no idea how it ended. I’m not afraid to say I’m still a bit bitter.

It seems I’m not the only one:

If you haven’t seen the film yet, it’s definitely a must see. But if you have restless kids, a short attention span, or prefer to actually see the end of the movie you paid $196 to go to, you might want to show up a bit late.